Educational Project #Betterrefs - Possibilities of using Technologies to Maintain Basketball Referees' Performance During Season Interruption: A Pilot Study

Basketball season was interrupted in March 2020, similarly as other sports competitions, due to the social distancing measures aimed at minimising the spread of coronavirus infection. The interruption might be much longer than common off-season and searching for the possible ways to prevent the athletes from decrease in performance is needed. The educational project #Betterrefs aims to help to maintain the level of the selected components of the referee's performance (knowledge of basketball rules and their interpretations, decision-making skills to judge game situations and players' actions, and physical preparation). The 4 week pilot study comprised all the referees (n = 165) of the Czech Association of Basketball Referees (CABR). The aim was to find out how the #Betterrefs project works in practice, and describe the interest and involvement of the referees. The results showed lower interest among the younger referees (16 - 30) compared to the other age categories (31 years and older), with regard to the age distribution of the basic sample. The highest interest was found in the video-test (98%) and in the rules test (94%), while only 31% of the referees got involved in the physical training. It is expected that this educational project would be in use throughout the whole period of the interruption of basketball competitions in the Czech Republic.